Barcelona - Racing Santander: Sunday 3pm EST

By: Isaiah | January 19th, 2008

It’s another match at the Camp Nou, the third in a row, and the hope is that Barcelona can take advantage of Real Madrid visiting the Calderon — assuming that RM slips up, of course. Racing comes calling on Sunday at 3pm EST, broadcast on GolTV as per usual. The big news, of course, is the return of Messi from injury. His return is bigger than it otherwise would be due to Samuel Eto’o joining Cameroon for the African Cup of Nations…African Nations Cup…(can’t they just figure out one name?) and Ronaldinho’s continued absence through injury.

Another bit of news is the addition of Jose Manuel Pinto to the roster. In case you aren’t aware, Pinto comes over from Celta Vigo on loan until the end of the season with an options to buy before May 31. It’s an interesting deal, I think, as the newspapers/rags are reporting that the deal cost 500,000 euros (how many billions of dollars is that?) but that the “option to buy” would be for a free transfer. Who is Pinto, though? He’s 32, a native of Cadiz, and a product of Real Betis’ youth system. With the exception of one game for Real Betis, Pinto has played his entire career at Celta Vigo. He won the Ricardo Zamora Trophy (Pichichi for goalies) for the 2005-06 season — interestingly enough that was the last year Barca won the league — allowing just 28 goals in 36 matches (0.78 goals per game).

Enough about Pinto, who has been included in the squad for the game. Here’s the rest of the squad:
Valdés, Pinto, Oleguer, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Thuram, Abidal, Sylvinho, Xavi, Márquez, Deco, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Messi, Giovani, Henry, Bojan

Oleguer is back in the lineup, which I’m sure makes us all sigh with relief. I’m surprised I didn’t mention it earlier in the post…And now that that information is out of the way, we can look at the options available for starting lineups. There are two major decisions to be made at this moment: 1) does Messi play? and 2) is the Copa more important than the league? My answers to those two questions are: 1) yes, but only for 20 minutes and 2) no.

I’d like to see a full strength squad out there, unlike what appeared against Murcia, despite the success achieved. That lineup was Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Thuram, Sylvinho, Marquez, Xavi, Eto’o, Gudjohnsen, Henry, Bojan. Replacing Sylvinho with Abidal seems like the way to go with the back line, naturally, leaving Marquez as the holding midfielder where he’s played very well. Stability in the back line will aid the counterattacks as well as the general spread of the offense. I would suggest this starting lineup:

Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Thuram, Abidal, Marquez, Xavi, Iniesta, Gudjohnsen, Henry, Bojan.

My reasoning is fairly simple: win the game early and then adjust to give Messi some playing time. I realize that this puts Deco and Gio Dos Santos on the bench, but with Gio playing fairly terribly recently and Deco failing to prove he is fully fit I don’t mind that at all. Give Gudjohnsen the opportunity to play the role he seems to thrive in, behind two strikers and with the ball at his feet. Deco provides more mobility and is far superior to Guddie on his day, but Guddie has been putting fairly complete performances together while Deco has been injured.

I also would like to see Iniesta in the starting lineup, providing some of the balls to the front line. I can completely understand putting Deco in for Guddie, but I don’t think Deco can provide the defensive presence. Plus, you can always bring Deco in during the second half (as well as Gio and Messi). I want to attack Racing and I want to do it early, not be patient in the buildup and score in the 70th minute. I also don’t want to be in a situation where Messi has to come in and “save” the team, but Henry and Bojan have been playing well enough together that I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Rijkaard has claimed he’ll be sparing with Messi, but who knows what that’ll mean.

I don’t know how much Frankie will listen to me, but I prefer to get 3 points here and struggle against Villarreal than to lose more ground to RM and win the first leg of a Copa del Rey quarterfinal. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Copa and I want to win it very badly, but the league comes first. That’s just that, to me.

Some of this comes down to the opponent, obviously. Racing is not a bad club, by any means. Hearing their name conjures up visions of 3 or 4-0 thrashings, but this is a team that is 6th in the league — a European team — and isn’t going to be joking around. According to the comments in a previous post, Racing’s coach, Marcelino, claims that their Copa match is more important and that he’ll make the appropriate changes. I don’t know who they’ll start on the bench, so I’ll just look at them statistically and assume they’ll revert to form regardless of who is playing.

They are 9W-5D-5L overall, but 3W-3D-4L on the road. They go from a sterling defense at home (4 goals allowed, tied for best), to 15 goals allowed away. They score in equal measures in either place (11 at home and 9 away to be exact), so the difference is almost entirely defensive. Barcelona is devastating at home, with a record of 6W-0D-1L, scoring 26 goals (tied best) and allowing 5 (2nd). That’s pretty damning for Racing, but they are on a small winning streak, with 2 wins in a row (1 league, 1 Copa), including an 0-2 away victory at Osasuna. But Barcelona is no Osasuna — the other away victories were Almeria and Depor, meaning 2 of those victories are at relegation zone teams — and will not fold over, regardless of who starts.

My official prediction: 2-0 Barca. If Madrid stumbles, we’ll be there to take advantage. I think we can do this. I know it’s NFL Championship weekend and I know the Barca game starts at the same time as the AFC championship game, but come on people, put your laptops next to the TVs and do double duty! We could be right back in this league race with this game. That is, of course, assuming that GolTV works on TVU Player…which it doesn’t seem to be for the Sevilla game at this very moment…dammit.